Events

Andrea Mitchell, NBC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, is also host of “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC. A veteran political correspondent for NBC News, Mitchell has covered every presidential campaign since 1980 as well as reporting on intelligence and national security issues across all NBC News and MSNBC properties.

She appears regularly on “Nightly News with Lester Holt,” “TODAY” and “Meet the Press” as well as on the streaming service NBC News Now. Mitchell's extensive and varied reports over the years include all of the Reagan/Gorbachev arms control summits, a series of exclusive interviews with Cuba's late President Fidel Castro, coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the Iran nuclear negotiations, conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo as well as assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

She was a panelist in the 1988 Bush-Dukakis Presidential debate as well as in the NBC News Democratic Primary debate in 2015. In 2019, she co-moderated the fifth Democratic presidential debate hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post in Atlanta.

Mitchell has been honored for her distinguished reporting, receiving the lifetime achievement award at the 40th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, The International Radio and Television Society Foundation’s Giant of Broadcasting and Electronic Arts Honor, the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Freedom of the Press Award from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Leonard Zeidenberg Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for her contribution to the protection of First Amendment freedoms. Mitchell was also recognized by New York Women in Communications with the prestigious Matrix Award for her excellence in broadcast journalism and won a Gracie Award for Outstanding Reporter/Correspondent.

In September 2005, Mitchell authored the best seller, “Talking Back," a memoir about her experiences as one of the first women to cover five presidents, Congress, and foreign policy.

A native of New York, Mitchell received a B.A. degree in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania where she served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors. She is currently an Emeritus Trustee and created the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy. In 2018, Mitchell delivered the University’s Commencement Address, receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Mitchell is married to former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and resides in Washington, D.C.

Sylvia Strobel has served as the president and CEO of Twin Cities PBS (TPT) since February of 2020. She has worked for more than 30 years in the public media industry as an executive and attorney, with positions at ideastream, American Public Media Group, Pennsylvania Public Television Network, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her passion and dedication to public media was developed in her first public media role as an intern in TPT’s legal department — making it fitting that she has now returned to lead the organization.
Strobel has served on numerous national boards and commissions, including serving more than a decade on the board of directors of the Alliance for Women in Media and its Foundation. She has also served on the boards of NPR, the Association of Junior Leagues International, and the FCC’s Advisory Committee for Diversity in the Digital Age. She currently serves on the boards of the MacPhail Center for Music, The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, the Mary T. and James J. Hill Library Foundation, the Public Television Major Market Group and Latino Public Broadcasting.
She majored in biology at St. Olaf before going on to earn her Juris Doctorate from Mitchell Hamline School of Law and her Master of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business.
Sylvia lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her husband, Walt Lehmann and they have two adult children.

Sylvia Bugg is the Chief Programming Executive and General Manager for PBS’s General Audience Programming, where she leads the multiplatform content strategy for adult audiences, PBS Digital Studios, and PBS Learning Media. Prior to her current role, Sylvia served as Vice President of Programming for PBS, managing the editorial team across a variety of genres including science, news, history, and arts.

Her return to PBS was a natural progression in her career journey having previously held the role of Director, General Audience Programming. Before her time at PBS, Sylvia worked as Vice President of Diversity and TV Content at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and spent over a decade in Programming and Operations at Discovery Communications – now Warner Bros. Discovery.

Sylvia is a member of The Television Academy Documentary Peer Group Executive Committee. She holds a Doctorate of Education from the University of Southern California and MBA from the University of Maryland, College Park.

As Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of The Walt Disney Company, Sonia Coleman is responsible for leading Disney’s human resources strategy, global talent acquisition, leadership development, diversity and inclusion, organizational design and cultural development, employee education and development, compensation and benefits, HR operations and technology, and global security.

Most recently, Coleman was responsible for employee development and engagement; recruitment and compensation; organizational development; and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for both ESPN and the general entertainment portfolio of businesses at Disney Entertainment, which include ABC Entertainment, ABC News, ABC Owned Televisions Stations, Disney Branded Television, Disney Television Studios (20th Television, ABC Signature, 20th Television Animation and Walt Disney Television Alternative), Freeform, FX, Hulu Originals, National Geographic Content, and Onyx Collective.

Prior to that, Coleman served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Disney General Entertainment from 2017. She also served as Vice President, Human Resources for the company from May 2016 and in that capacity oversaw HR strategy, change management initiatives, organizational development, and engagement strategies for Disney’s corporate, enterprise, and cross-functional employees, and served as the lead HR business partner to the company’s senior corporate executives. She was also responsible for employee relations for the company.

Coleman joined Disney in 2008 as Vice President, Human Resources, Disney Consumer Products, a role she held for eight years. Before Disney, Coleman worked at The Children’s Place from 2004 to 2008, where she held several strategic HR roles; and The Home Depot from 1992 to 2004, where she served as the strategic HR leader during a period of large-scale change and complex organizational transformation.

Coleman has a Bachelor of Science degree in organizational leadership from Chapman University and a Master of Science degree in human resource management from Florida International University.

Jennifer Leimgruber is a 30-year radio industry veteran. She currently serves as Executive Vice President of Entertainment Programming for Premiere Networks, the leading audio network in the U.S., which syndicates more than 100 radio programs and services to more than 8,000 radio affiliations and reaches a quarter billion listeners monthly. In that role, she oversees production, performance and strategy for the organization’s entertainment programming featuring marquee talents such as Ryan Seacrest, Elvis Duran, Steve Harvey, Delilah and others.

Leimgruber is also instrumental in developing the next generation of radio stars. She leads a team that’s responsible for launching numerous industry-leading and award-winning radio programs, including Way Up with Angela Yee, The Breakfast Club, The Bobby Bones Show, On with Mario Lopez, After MidNite with Granger Smith, The Sweat Hotel with Keith Sweat, On The Move with Enrique Santos and many others. She also works directly with the company’s talent around larger corporate, community, sales and media initiatives.
Additionally, Leimgruber leads the company’s live radio broadcast team covering nearly 50 major music events each year, including the iHeartRadio Music Festival, iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball, the iHeartCountry Festival and the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Plus, her team produces live broadcasts from the iHeartRadio Theaters in New York and Los Angeles for artists such as Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, Shakira and Coldplay, and countless other album releases and tour specials for artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Drake, Elton John and Lady Gaga.
Named one of Radio Ink’s “Most Influential Women in Radio,” Leimgruber has worked at Premiere Networks for more than two decades. She previously served as Vice President of Affiliate Relations and Marketing for MJI Broadcasting.

A native of Lloyd Harbor, NY, Leimgruber received a bachelor’s degree in Intellectual History from Connecticut College. She resides in Old Lyme, CT with her husband Seth and their dog Arlo, and spends as much time as possible with her stepchildren who live in Stockholm, Sweden.

Deborah Parenti is President and Publisher of the Radio, TV & Broadcast Conference Division of Streamline Publishing.

In this role, Deborah oversees Radio Ink and Radio + Television Business Report in addition to the annual Hispanic Radio Conference, The Radio Masters Sales Summit, and Radio Ink/RBR+TVBR’s annual Forecast at the Harvard Club in New York City. Ms. Parenti joined Streamline in 2007.

A native Daytonian, Deborah’s career in the radio broadcasting industry started at WING in Dayton, where she rose to VP and Assistant General Manager following roles in promotion, marketing, and research. She later joined Stoner Broadcasting, serving as General Sales Manager at Stoner’s WDJX in Louisville before returning to Dayton in 1990 as VP/General Manager of WWSN, as the first woman to manage a radio station in that market. Under her leadership, the station would become WMMX “Mix 107.7,” a station that today remains one of Dayton’s most listened to FM radio choices.

She was later named VP/GM of American Radio Systems’ Dayton group, earning a major profile in the February 1997 issue of Working Woman magazine for her role in developing one of the first consolidated radio sales platforms, “Radio First!” Additionally, she managed Beasley Broadcast Group’s country-formatted WXTU-FM in Philadelphia in the late 90’s and from 1999-2010, was a board member of Vox Radio.

Ms. Parenti is a previous board member of the Alliance for Women in Media and currently serves on the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation board.

She was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2023. Earlier that year, she was the recipient of the Broadcasters Foundation of America Leadership Award. In 2022 Deborah was presented with the Dayton Broadcasters Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award, having previously been inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

Jen Sargent is a successful entrepreneur and executive with 20 years of digital media experience. She is currently the CEO of Wondery, a premium podcast studio and network acquired by Amazon in 2021, known for its character-driven, binge-worthy Dr. Death, British Scandal, Even the Rich, and Business Wars, along with hit partner shows like Morbid, How I Built This, and Ten Percent Happier. Over 55 shows from Wondery have hit No. 1 on Apple Podcasts, including Scamfluencers and Stolen Hearts. Many Wondery podcasts have been adapted for scripted television or streaming series, including Dr. Death and Joe vs Carole on Peacock, The Shrink Next Door and WeCrashed on Apple TV+, and upcoming Gladiator and Dying for Sex for FX. Wondery has gained critical acclaim and commercial success for its immersive approach emotionally driven storytelling, and being an audio-first, not audio only company, by going beyond the headphones reaching audiences where they are.

Jen was previously the President of Uproxx, a Comscore Top-100 digital publisher and award-winning content studio programming cultural content for Millennials. As President, Jen led the strategy, revenue generation, partnerships, and operations across the organization. Uproxx was acquired by Warner Music in Summer of 2018. Prior to Uproxx, Jen was the CEO and co-founder of HitFix, a multi-platform entertainment news brand focused on helping consumers discover and experience movies, TV and pop-culture. HitFix featured entertainment’s most celebrated tastemakers and a cross-platform reach of 300 million monthly viewers. HitFix was acquired by Uproxx in 2016. Previous roles include head of Online Marketing & Development for Reed Business Information (parent of Variety); the International Media Group of top ad-serving technology company DoubleClick; venture capital experience from BV Capital in Hamburg, Germany; and finance experience from JP Morgan investment banking in New York. Jen earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

As Chief Financial Officer, NBCUniversal Entertainment, Holly Tang oversees finance activities for NBCU’s Entertainment portfolio, supporting the content and business divisions. She reports to Christy Shibata, Chief Financial Officer, NBCUniversal Media Group, and Frances Berwick, Chairman, NBCUniversal Entertainment.
Tang’s purview includes Entertainment Programming for NBC, Bravo, Peacock, E!, Oxygen True Crime, SYFY, Universal Kids and USA Network. In her position, Tang identifies growth drivers and new revenue streams across platforms and plays a key role in defining and building strategic initiatives.
Previously, Tang was Chief Financial Officer and Head of Production Operations for the Lifestyle Networks, where she was responsible for financial oversight and production operations for Bravo, E!, Oxygen True Crime and Universal Kids.
Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Tang was Director of Finance at Comedy Central, overseeing general accounting operations and budgets for programming, marketing, digital media and all ancillary businesses. Previously, she held various positions at MTV Networks, including Production Manager for VH1, and Manager, Production and Operations for Nickelodeon Digital. Tang began her career at Morgan Stanley in Capital Markets and later re-joined as an Associate in the Investment Banking Division.
Tang graduated Magna Cum Laude from Smith College with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Economics and has a Master's of Business Administration from MIT Sloan School of Management. She has been honored by CableFAX as one of the “Most Powerful Women” and “Most Influential Minorities” in cable.